What happened to Eight Belles was a horrible, tragic accident that could not have been avoided.

The horse's trainer even said he'd put the same jockey on one of his horses if the derby were tomorrow. PETA has no right to include themselves in this type of situation. The only argument they could make is if all of the horses in the race or all of the horses that Saez rode had to be put down. He expertly rode Eight Belles to a second-place finish.

Even if Saez knew Eight Belles was badly injured and kept riding her, it is because if he pulled up, he risked injuring the other riders and horses. And had he done that, would PETA be on his case?

These people disgust me, it's simple as that. I understand their causes when actual cruelty is involved. But this is ridiculous. And now they're making demands that if an investigation finds Saez was aware of the horse's injury, that the 400,000 dollar prize that Eight Belles bloody WON should be given back.

It's never a problem until something happens for these folks. People have known for years exactly what these horses go through for these races, the problems with breeding, age restrictions, but why start now? And why target Eight Belles and her owners/trainer/jockey?

My goodness. I love sports of all kinds, my brain may explode one day from too much exposure to professional athletics.

However, tomorrow is my favorite day of the Sports Year.

That's right. It's the NFL Draft! There is nothing I like more than just sitting in front of the TV with some drinks and snacks and just watching teams try to find their futures.

And what's better, is that this year has a lot of players that could turn out to be incredible someday. We're talking 1996's draft talent level. You may not see it now, but I have a hunch that five years down the road, you'll look back at the 2008 draft and go "WOW THEY WERE ALL IN THAT DRAFT?!"

Top Storylines going into the draft:

1. Will Matt Ryan slip past the Ravens at 8? If he doesn, when will he get picked?

2. The Patriots who were 35 seconds from being 19-0 last year have a top 10 pick. Need I say more?

3. The Eagles are in a great position, they can afford to trade Lito Sheppard for a higher pick (I'm sure the Patriots might be interested), and then draft for need.

4. Do the Packers really trust Aaron Rodgers? Will they take Brohm? Or Flacco? Or Ryan if he's there?

5. The Cowboys are rumored to be heavily considering Felix Jones who is an absolute freak. Marion Barber and Felix Jones would be a terrifying offense to deal with, and oh yeah, Terrell Owens IS STILL THERE!

6. If you're the Oakland Raiders, and Chris Long slips to the 4th pick. And you have to choose between Darren McFadden and Chris Long, what the Hell do you do?!

6a. If they take Chris Long, what do the Chiefs, Jets, and Patriots do?

A lot of people don't like the random signing of Jake Long by the Dolphins which took the excitement out of "who's name is getting called first?" however, the rest of the first round, and the draft in general is almost certain to have lots of twists and turns.

One of the most frustrating things for me in all of professional sports is the alignment in baseball.

16 NL teams
14 AL teams

Not just that, but in the AL, there are two divisions with five teams (east and central) and one division with 4 (the west, obviously).

In the NL, the easy and west have five times.. however the central has six teams. So what the MLB needs right now is realignment. However, realigment goes best with everbody's favorie word... EXPANSION!!!!

So, I now present to you the divisions of Major League Baseball, if I were commissioner:

There you go. Piece of cake. Add two expansion teams to the AL and all of the sudden both leagues have an even number that's divisible by four. You want me to say ta-dah so it seems more like a trick? New Orleans was a recommendation, Raleigh is a necessity. With all of the minor league baseball that takes place in the Carolinas year in and year out, it's about time they moved to the show, eh?

Change the playoff system, make it closer to football's, series length goes 5-7-7-7.

One of my favorite sports teams is playing a seventh game in their first round series tonight. They were up 3 games to 1, and were looking like they had the other team on it's heels.

But lo' and behold. Here tonight, the Flyers will be playing the Capitals in a game 7 that should not even be happening. And what's worse is.... I'm not all that upset.

I love the Flyers, I do. I have for years. I remember cheering for them throughout the 90's. And when they got to the Stanley Cup Finals in 1997, only to get swept by the Detroit Red Wings.

Disappointed as I was, I had never been so excited before. A championship series with my favorite team involved? As a Red Sox and Celtics fan that happened to be born in 1987, I had no idea what it was like at that point.

That season is what got me started on watching hockey more often. And for years, I combated my fandom of the Flyers by trying to follow the Boston Bruins, as I'm already a Patriots, Red Sox, and Celtics fan thanks to my father.

However, I was able to resist. And I chose the Flyers as my team. I watched as they played great hockey, signed and re-signed great players, but never got around to winning the Stanley Cup.

I remember the 2003-2004 playoffs like yesterday. First the Flyers beat their rivals, the New Jersey Devils in five games. Then they took down the Toronto Maple Leafs in six games. This series ended on a dramatic overtime goal by Jeremy Roenick, which to this day is still one of the best moments I've witnessed in sports.

Then, the Tampa Bay Lightening beat the Flyers in 7 games. Ending the excitement, and I was so furious that I didn't watch any of the Stanley Cup Finals, which Tampa Bay ended up winning.

Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals was the last NHL game I would watch for over a year.

The entire 2004-2005 season was cancelled due to a labor dispute between the League and the Player's Association, it was a bitter dispute that led to controversial comments from both sides. And finally in the summer of 2005, they agreed on a deal, ushering in the "New NHL" which of course is meant to be more fan friendly.

Shootouts, goalie restrictions, wider goals, no more ties. But most noticeable about the changes to hockey is that ESPN no longer covers it. It's like a holiday when NBC actually covers it, and unless you have some sort of NHL package, chances are you're stuck with the Versus Network.

THE VERSUS NETWORK!?!? 8&^%!!!!! All they have on all day before they play hockey is bass fishing, hunting, and other various outdoor games. And this is the channel I have to watch my hockey on?

ESPN pays hardly ANY attention to the NHL anymore, it's pretty much a second rate league. It's slightly above the MLS and AFL, but nowhere close to even the NBA right now.

And what's even worse. Is right now Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin are entering their primes. Both are incredibly young and terrifyingly talented, and hardly anybody cares because the League couldn't get a decent television broadcast deal.

Anyway, the point is, it's taken it's toll on me as well.

I have DirecTV, so I don't get the Versus Network... or Comcast Sports Net. I can not watch the Flyers play, unless they happen to trip and fall onto NBC one Saturday or Sunday afternoon.

I listen to the games on the radio, but it just doesn't have the same effect. And the fact is, I'm nervous about tonight. Not just about the Flyers possibly blowing a 3 games to 1 lead, but that I may not actually be that upset about it.

And if ESPN truly does show more of what people are interested in than something else, well then it appears I'm one of many who are at this point.

I hope the NHL can get it together, pick up a TV deal and start advertising, like the NBA did in the nineties with the "I Love This Game" campaign, but I'm not holding my breath on that.

I hope that someday, I can watch a hockey game again and feel the excitement I once did.

I hope that when I'm 50, people will still be talking about the resurgance of the NHL thanks mainly to Crosby and Ovechkin.

A third-round draft pick from the University of Notre Dame got his chance at being the starter for the San Francisco 49ers. The game was against the winless New Orleans Saints, who had a lead of 35-7 at halftime. At the end of the third it was 35-21. And at the end of the fourth, it was 35-35. The 49ers kicked a field goal in overtime. And with that, Joe Montana got his first of thirty-one career comeback victories.

Montana, who had been drafted in 1979, would play until 1994, and in that time would be named to 8 Pro-Bowl teams, 7 All-Pro teams, win 4 Super Bowls (three of which he was named Most Valuable Player for), 2 NFL MVPs, 1 Offensive Player of the Year award, 1 Comeback Player of the Year award. but what made him special was his post-season play. He has the records for most touchdowns (45) and most passing yards (5,772) in the playoffs. He never lost a Super Bowl, and never threw an interception in a Super Bowl.It was the beginning of an era.

The Quarterback Club Era.

Four years after Montana was drafted, John Elway and Dan Marino would join the National Football League. Elway for the Broncos, Marino for the Dolphins. They would both play their entire careers for those teams.

Steve Young would replace Montana in San Francisco, and Montana would move to Kansas City the same year that the Atlanta Falcons would trade Brett Favre, a quarterback who in his rookie year threw 4 passes for the Falcons, and the only completion was on his first one, unfortunately, that completion was to the other team, and was returned for a touchdown.

Things didn't look too promising early on for Favre in Green Bay, either. At one point during a game in which Favre came in to replace Don Majkowski, the crowd in Green Bay chanted for Ty Detmer to come in and replace Favre. However, with 13 seconds left in the game, Favre completed the winning touchdown pass. And the next game began the longest consecutive started game streak for a Quarterback in NFL history. Brett Favre would finish 1992 by being named to the Pro Bowl. For the first of nine times.

Through the years, Marino was the only one of the five top members of the elite era to not win a Super Bowl. Counting by Super Bowl rings, they have:
Montana: 4
Young: 3
Elway: 2
Favre: 1
Marino: 0

10 rings combined for these five men. They are the basis for what Quarterbacks are judged by today. And they define the types of Quarterbacks there are.

The Super Bowl only brought them together three times throughout their intertwined careers.

In Super Bowl XIX, Montana defeated the Dolphins led by Dan Marino, 38-16. In Super Bowl XXIV, Montana and Elway went head-to-head, and Montana's 49ers dominated Elway's Broncos. And in Super Bowl XXXII, John Elway defeated Brett Favre's defending champion Packers in one of the greatest Super Bowls of all time.

I write this because with Brett Favre's retirement 23 days ago, the last member of that group is now out of football. His first pass was an interception, as was his last pass, against the Giants in the NFC championship game.

And now with Favre gone, maybe the torch can be passed. But as it stands, there are only two great Quarterbacks in the NFL. Tom Brady of the New England Patriots, and Peyton Manning of the indianapolis Colts. Maybe in the near future quarterbacks from other teams will show their abilities, and a new group will emerge. But in my opinion, I just don't see a group like that coming into a league, and re-defining a position for a long time.

All five of the Quarterback Clubbers are Pro Football Hall of Famers or are first ballot locks (Favre).

We've had flashes of greatness from other Quarterbacks in the time of the great 5. Kurt Warner, Troy Aikman, Phil Simms, etc. But none of them could compare to any of the others for what they did for their teams and position.

Hello CBS. It's been a couple of months and I've just earned a shiny new blog! So I figure I'll introduce you to the man behind the eyepatch.

Name's Chris. As you can see, half of my favorite teams are from the Boston area. So, let me explain to you why I am a fan of these teams.

Pats, Celts, Sox: My family is from Massachusetts, I was born in Delaware. My father got at me early with sports, and I was raised watching the Pats, Celts, Sox, and Bruins. As I grew up and started playing football, baseball, and basketball... I started to love the sports more, and that led to following the teams more closely... these are my teams, and 8 years ago, I was pitied for liking them. Now I'm a pariah, it's fantastic.

Flyers: My Bruins watching experience was limited, and when I moved to Pennsylvania I saw a lot more Flyers hockey. Hextall, LeClair, Brind'amour... and I tried, I really did to remain a Bruins fan, but as the years went by, the ownership did nothing to make the team better. So I jumped ship about 4 years ago. I follow all of the Philly teams, but I love the Flyers. And I will say til the day I die, I didn't leave the Bruins. The Bruins left me.

Notre Dame Fighting Irish: This can be contributed to my Grandfather. He came to America in the fifties from, you guessed it, Ireland. And when my brother and I were born we were surrounded by Notre Dame things whenever we went to his house. And as I grew up, I became a fanatic.

St. Joe's Hawks: See, College Basketball is the toughest for me. I follow a lot of teams, and hate a lot of teams. But I love A-10 and Big 5 basketball. And of the Big Five teams, St. Joe's has been my favorite for years. I've met some of the players from the undefeated 2003-2004 season. I hope they have another year like that some day.

Now, I follow the hometown teams (Phillies, Eagles, Sixers) and I wish them well as long as they don't play my teams. I think now that I've seen so much success for my teams, that I just want Philadelphia to get a title. I listen to sports radio here, and I can't help but think how different it will be if one of the teams could win.

Anway, that's me. I look forward to discussing various ridiculous topics in the blog for the coming months. Enjoy.